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Billy Ocean
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21 January 2024

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The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth21.1.1789

Wikipedia (19 Mar 2013, 13:38)
The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature (1789) is an 18th-century American sentimental novel written in epistolary form by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel. Published by Isaiah Thomas in Boston on January 21, 1789, The Power of Sympathy was Brown's first novel. The characters' struggles illustrate the dangers of seduction and the pitfalls of giving in to one's passions, while advocating the moral education of women and the use of rational thinking as ways to prevent the consequences of such actions.

Historical context

The novel mirrors a local New England scandal involving Brown's neighbor Perez Morton's incestuous seduction of Fanny Apthorp; Apthorp was Morton's sister-in-law. Apthorp became pregnant and committed suicide, but Morton was not legally punished. The scandal was widely known, so most readers were able to quickly identify the "real" story behind the fiction: "in every essential, Brown's story is an indictment of Morton and an exoneration of Fanny Apthorp," with "Martin" and "Ophelia" representing Morton and Apthorp, respectively.

A century after William Hill Brown’s death in 1793, Arthur Bayley, editor of The Bostonian published a serial publication of The Power of Sympathy, attributing the work to Sarah Wentworth Morton of Boston, a poetess. Through much of the 19th century, the author was believed to be female.


   
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